


Baby Hotline

by CuteVyper



Series: Jack Stauber [1]
Category: Far Cry (Video Games), Far Cry 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, F/M, Haunting, Past Violence, Pre-Canon, Psychic Joseph Seed, Psychological Horror, maybe? Slight Stockholm Syndrome, tags will be updated as the story goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:28:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28857354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteVyper/pseuds/CuteVyper
Summary: The story of Far Cry 5. With a twist.
Series: Jack Stauber [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116161
Kudos: 2





	1. Baby Hotline

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the AU of an AU, lol.

Joseph was 6 and didn't knew how to explain to his older brother, Jacob, how the granny from the other side of the street, that supposedly passed away in a attempted robbery, was still there waiting for a visit from her son. Jacob would just look at him as if it was weird what he was saying and tell him to not say that kind of stuff around their parents. Joseph was curious but he believed in Jacob so he kept quiet about it. Besides, he was scared his father will hit him again.

Joseph was 10 and he really didn't like hospitals. They were full of people , alive and rushing from place to place, dead and  in agony trying to  understand what was going on with them. He was waiting with Jacob trying to make himself look smaller to not attract attention . Waiting for their new sibling. 

Their father was somewhere drinking himself to  sleep, not happy with the news  he was going to have another child but too religious to kill it when they could have.

Jacob , 12, was looking at the doors in wait , ready to become the protector of their new sibling and most likely trying to figure out how  they are going to take care of  them  considering the little money they had.

The screaming of their mother wasn't giving him any kind of peace either.

While they were waiting a young woman in a nightgown, blue eyes and short blond hair, saw him scared and sat by his side. She started to pet his head, trying to comfort him. 

Jacob wasn't aware she was there. 

Whoever she was, started speaking to him. 

“It's OK. You don't have to be afraid. Nothing is going to happen with your mommy or with the baby.  They are important.”

“How do you know that?”  He whispered in order to  not worry Jacob. Jacob caught him talking all alone a couple of times and  he would just look worried about him.  Joseph didn’t want to worry him more than he was already doing when their father was around.

“Because we all play a part in  God's plan. Just like how He saved my baby in order for  them to play their part .” Maybe he was too young but at the moment  he  didn't understood  what she meant .  Y et.

The woman had comforted him until  a Nurse came out and allowed him and Jacob to see their baby brother.  Jacob carefully took him in his arms when their mother had refused to hold  her new-born.

Joseph took a look back in the waiting room but the woman was no longer there. He prayed she will be able to move on.

Joseph was 14 and he knew he and his brothers were meant for something great since that June, since when he heard the Voice for the first time. He knew it was no ghost playing tricks on him because it felt so different. Whenever a spirit appeared and would talk to him it would feel cold and, depending on their nature, if malicious, a blizzard like cold that cut through his skin even of there was no evidence of it, or if disinterested, a cold like in a snowy day. Or at least that was the way he believed he could describe it best. 

He never talked with Jacob about it, neither with John, but he did tell them about the Voice. And he knew it must have been a sign from God. It felt so warm and so light. It just couldn’t have been a ghost.

When the authorities came to see the burning farm, the corpse of their slaver and put the cuffs on his older brother he wasn’t scared. Not when John later got adopted by a rich family of Atlanta. Neither when he started to be adopted by families, good and bad, and be put into adoption once again.

He knew one day he will be reunited with his brothers. He had no reason to be scared as long as he believed in the Voice. 

Joseph was nearly 17 years old, adopted by a new family and in a new home, when he felt for the first time scared. He woke up from the cold, with a shiver, as if he was in the middle of a glacial winter even if it was the last days of August. He never felt such a hostile presence directed towards him ever in his life. It was too malevolent to be only a normal ghost that wasn’t aware it died. It even made the air around him feel closed, as if he was trapped in a box and it wanted for him to suffocate, with the ill-intent that they had towards him. 

He knew it had to be a ghost. There was no other explanation he considered logical enough when he was that perturbed but the world around him felt so peaceful. Maybe too peaceful since he couldn’t hear any critter or random noise from his window, from the backyard, from anywhere. He tried to make a sound but it was as if his voice had a mind of  it’s own and chose to stay quiet. With the realization, the room appeared bigger and darker. No more hospitable to him or to anyone. Besides the venomous feeling that he was being watched. 

No, better said observed. As if he was one of those pets sealed behind a glass cage, ready to be adopted, and being meticulously observed by a parent for any imperfections. Only that it felt as if he was being observed for weaknesses, with a malicious intent to harm.

Then, in the silence, he realized he was actually hearing something. A woman’s weeping. When he raised himself from the bed and took a glance at the ajar door, only then did he realize he actually closed the door before going to bed. Then did he realize that there was someone actually watching him from the black space in between the door and the frame. And their glare that could put anyone seven feet under only disappeared moments after he realized they were there, looking unimpressed. 

As in to tell him they didn’t found him as an actual menace.

He soon rose up, wishing to confront the spirit, having the intuition that even if he ignored them, they won’t be deterred. Most of the ghosts left him alone when they would realize he won’t answer them but he had the hunch this one will be completely different from the rest.

The feeling of dread only amplified when Joseph went out into the hallway. This time the sensation of being observed was not only from a person, but various, as if he was in the spotlight and amounts of people were surrounding him and judging him. The hallway looked darker and longer than it should have been. He knew he was actually alone but his senses were screaming at him to run and hide, as fast as he could, somewhere safe. He continued calmly down the hallway, ignoring the alarms his senses put in his brain, towards the stairs, from where he heard the weeping closer. 

He had the Voice with him, he was safe.

He reached them but his body stopped and he wasn’t allowed to go further anymore. Something was keeping him as far away from the source of the weeping. Most likely from the kitchen, the only place he could see lights coming from and luminating as they could the living room. At one moment the weeping stopped and at the bottom of the stairs he could see an electric racecar track that had various little cars speeding along faster and faster. 

Joseph realized maybe it won’t be so easy to deal with this ghost. The cars stopped racing out of nowhere and crashed into each other. The light from the kitchen was switched off and there was complete silence once again. He tried to move once more but he was still stuck in place and it unnerved him more and more with each passing moment.

Or at least until he felt a shiver down his spine and a presence right behind him. Whoever it was, had a sweet-smelling perfume but not overbearing of spring flowers. For some unknown reason it brought a feeling of safety over him, even if they stayed put like a statue behind him for what felt like hours and he was not allowed to turn back. They finally made a move and with a warm breath in his ear he heard a sweet melodic voice compared to the horrendous voice he expected. 

“Be careful to not slip on the stairs again, baby.” 

He could suddenly feel like he could move again and he turned back to see whoever it was speaking with him but he couldn’t see anybody down the darkened hall. He took a few steps towards the hall, calling out.

“Please, I don’t intend to hurt you. I just wish to speak with you.”

Once again, down the stairs he heard a sudden sound. He looked back and there was a cymbal-banging monkey toy, banging its cymbals together and screeching, where there once stood the toy track. Then he heard steps running and barking coming from down behind him. 

Suddenly a black ugly looking hound, baring his big white fangs and snarling and foaming at the mouth, jumped at him from the shadows and bit his shoulder hard enough it pushed him down the stairs. His shoulder hurt really badly as the hound appeared to want to take out and chew on his clavicle and the terror from believing he was going to snap his neck on the stairs only amplified when he saw in the shadows, at the top of the stairs, the same eyes that were watching him from the door, what felt like hours ago, with only hate and vitriol towards him.

He suddenly woke up in his bed, once again with a shiver, but he quickly realized he wasn’t alone.

Right by his side, there was a girl in a disheveled school uniform. Her skin was pale and the moonlight from his window made her look like an angel even for her black pools of hair. She was waking up and only then did Joseph realized four things: her skirt was bunched up high giving him a look of her milky white long legs, her shirt was unbuttoned so he could see with no problems her white lacey bra and her tie was still hanging around her neck, she was held close to him by his own arm, by her small back, and she had her arm over his naked chest, possessively one might say. 

And, oh right, she was waking up. Joseph still looked at her, shocked, while her deep blue eyes, like sapphires, first watched him with confusion and afterwards with amusement. She soon smiled and Joseph felt himself blush.

While he was still frozen, she wasn’t. She cuddled into him for a few moments, kissed his cheek and afterwards gave him a hickey on his neck. He wanted to make her stop, to question who she was but his mind was soon invaded with impure thoughts concerning the beautiful teenage girl.

Still kissing his neck, she straddled him and started calling his name sweetly, just like a siren calling her lover.

“Joseph... Joe! Joey.” She called his name in a sing-song manner, playful, like a child, and he found it alluring enough to ignore the warnings his senses were sending him. Enough to ignore the chill that was entering his bones and taking away the warmth of his body. 

Too soon, she stopped her ministrations and rose up and he was about to ask her why she stopped when he realized something was definitely wrong. He was no longer in his room. He couldn’t identify the room where he was and it was too dark to see anything. He could only see that the space was really cluttered and that the windows were covered, to not let light in.

After he stopped looking around, he realized she was mumbling something. He turned back to her to ask her what was wrong but he soon was left breathless when she took a kitchen knife out and began to stab him continuously.

Over and over and she was not stopping.

He looked at his angel and the sight gave him chills. Her skirt and shirt were now ruined, ripped and cut in places, filthy with dirt and fresh blood. All the buttons, save for a few ones, and her tie were gone. Her bra was ruined too and filthy with mostly blood. She had cuts on her once perfect skin spelling ‘sinner’ and various other sexual slurs, and all of them bleeding. Right in the middle of her chest was a big wound, most likely done from a firearm. There was blood dripping on him from her head, another wound that looked like a shotgun wound, and her hair was falling in her face, covering it, but not her eyes. 

He quickly realized those were the same eyes he saw in the hallway. And looked even more menacing than before.

Between the pain he realized he felt more emotions that we’re definitely not his: hatred, anger, sadness, tiredness, despair, betrayal and many other ones. He soon realized that with the blood there were tears too mixed in. Since he could feel those emotions as his own, he started to pity her even if she continued stabbing him. The emotions overtook him and he started to cry too. This ghost was too malevolent, too hateful, too vengeful. She corrupted everything around her. 

She stopped her mumbling and snarled at him just like the hound from earlier. 

“Do not pity me and GIVE IT BACK!” He only watched her bewildered at her anger.

He tried to ask her what and who was she but she continued as if she couldn’t hear him. 

“Give it back ALREADY! IT’S MINE!”

She finally got tired of stabbing him and slashed his neck, with no hesitance.

Joseph woke up in cold sweat and realized he was finally truly awake. The sun was just rising outside and he could hear the chirping of the birds. He watched the clock and saw it was six in the morning. The door to his room was closed just as he left it last night and nothing appeared to have changed. But the feeling of dread was still there. She didn’t want to show herself to him but she was watching him. To see what he will do.

And of course, it had to happen in his last year of high school. Perfect.


	2. Please hold me

Joseph believed in God. But he didn’t understand why him. Why did God grace him with the Voice? Why did he give him such a gift? It was hard to understand His ways but he was just a mere mortal. He couldn’t go against His will. 

But he also couldn’t understand why did He gave him such a challenge. Joseph didn’t have the intention to move to this house. He didn’t have the intention to anger the unsettled soul that occupied this house. More so if he would have been warned she would continue to torture him as she could in his sleep. 

After the second week, he considered she was stuck on a loop, like a broken record. Until one night when she straddled him and didn’t even try to seduce him unlike many other nights and she just glared at him, staying quiet and biting her bottom lip. And he thought, even angered and frustrated, she was as beautiful as a doll when she looked human. But his appreciation would go down the drain quickly when her angelic appearance would flicker and show him her corpse at random intervals. 

Like a faulty television screen. From experience that told him her emotions were all over the place and she was suffering so even if she tried to hurt him, he felt pity. Which angered her even more, made her more unstable and crueler, which made him pity her even more and so they entered a vicious cycle. 

In the first days he realized she must have suffered a violent death but he didn’t know how he could convince her to talk with him. About anything. 

He even wondered if there were other ghosts in the house at the beginning since there were always toys scattered around the house but the ghost seemed like it ignored them and the perfume woman, whom he managed to actually approach once enough to see her features (blond hair long enough to reach her shoulders and pale skin, just like the ghost). He couldn't see her face because she would just hide it with her hands while weeping as if she was begging for clemency, while feeling shameful. He even tried to speak to her once but she just ignored him. 

It angered her trying to speak to the woman. Right after his first successful attempt to approach the weeping woman, without getting maimed to death by that awful, ugly hellhound that looked as if it had been thrown into a razor wire field and dragged through it, he suddenly felt cold naked arms hugging his chest, possessively, from behind, bloody from the still bleeding wounds that never closed. He could feel her pressed against his back, though he didn't turn around and just blushed when he realized she was lacking clothes. A fact that still bothered him too much considering the circumstances. 

Since the first night, he tried to put on a nightshirt but she would just pull him with it towards her, rip it to shreds with her knife, make her seduction games even more tempting than they should be already whenever she would unbutton his nightshirt or just rip off the buttons, and she even tried a couple of times to choke him with it. He decided to not put it on any longer since it was getting harder to look at it without remembering. Besides, it was still hot outside. He will worry when the weather got colder. 

Her arms were just wandering around at first, once nearly reaching his crotch, under his pants, but she began to set her nails on him just like a cat would a scratching post, leaving angry red lines on his skin, slowly but surely tearing through his skin. He couldn’t move and he couldn’t ask for help either from the woman, not because she ignored him, but because once again, like countless times now, he couldn't speak, just moan in pain. 

When she would finally pass through his skin, she would dig her nails as slowly as possible, trying to wiggle them, making tears come up to his eyes from the pain. She would then pull him with her, away from the weeping woman and the warm kitchen light which he considered an actual safe zone. 

He realized she was actually letting him go in there because she wanted to avoid the room, for some unknown reason. But when she sensed him trying to approach the woman, she set her emotions aside and tried to drag him out. His only conclusion was that his ghost didn’t want him at all near the woman. And he was proved right... for a price. 

Once again in the dark living room, she would push him against the wall with her own body while tearing through his chest with her nails like daggers. She then would stab him in his lower back to keep him in place while banging his head against the wall repeatedly. He shouldn’t have stayed conscious but he did and he could feel pain whenever his already broken noise would connect with the wall and his eyesight would even darker but she wouldn’t let him fall unconscious. At one point she would stop and take out her knife out of his kidney. Then with a force that shouldn’t belong to a teenage girl she would turn him over with his back to the wall, getting his head hit in the process, and press herself to him once more while grabbing him hard by… his privates with a hand and still holding the sharp kitchen knife. 

He observed she couldn't keep her emotions in control and the bloody corpse version was before him, with a dead look like that of a fish staring right in his eyes, and an indifferent expression was set on her face while her hair was messed up, going in all directions. Her blood was flowing more and more quickly, chilling him with it’s coldness and likely making a puddle at their feet. 

“I don't understand why you are so stubborn. Why do you wish to continue suffering like this? Are you that masochistic? I just asked for one thing and you aren't able to do such a simple thing. New question: are you that dumb? Anyway, don’t ever come near her, understood? Or I'll do even worse the next time you even think about it. OK?” With a chilling and unnatural giggle, she cut off his privates in one go, stabbed him in his chest cavity 17 times in quick succession and ended with stabbing him in the head letting him fall down to the floor. He could only see her bloody naked legs and the last thing she heard was her, calling her accursed dog for it’s meal. 

Micha was it’s name apparently. 

She left him alone afterwards, and in a long time he actually dreamed of his brothers and his life from before they got separated. 

He knew how to recognize now if she was in the same room with him or not. Whenever she was around the scent of iron and something else, either a smell like medicine, gasoline or smoke, could be sensed in the air. Or at least by him. He complained once about the smell and his adoptive mother only answered him that she didn’t smell anything besides for the meat pie in the oven. Gloria asked him if he was alright or if there was any problem, she could help him with. He must have looked awful from the lack of rest. And his ghost would mock him in his dreams afterwards with whatever ammunition she could find. 

Gloria Fairgrow, his most recent adoptive parent, was a good woman. She and her husband, David, were an elderly couple that, for not being blessed with children of their own, adopted those that the system considered no longer ‘fit' for being adopted. Mainly teenagers. They said they wanted to adopt one more child and Joseph was lucky to have been the one, in the words of the caretakers from his last orphanage, considering his history. His history of how he wanted to show his newest family the truth but was brought back to the orphanage being considerate as a ‘defect’. 

He decided this time he shall keep quiet. He would only have to resist a year and then he will be alone once more. 

One day, when he was sure the ghost wasn’t around, Joseph asked Gloria how long have they lived there and if they even knew the previous owner of the house. Gloria answer was that they moved there three years prior to his adoption due to David needing to transfer and that for seven years nobody lived in the house. She and David never met the previous owners. 

“Do you know who they were?” 

“I’ve tried to ask the agent who sold to us the house about them but she only said the previous owner didn’t want to know anything about the house or even the neighborhood. I’ve tried asking around since the piano in the living room was left behind but whenever I asked the neighbours, they would just avoid talking about it. I think I even remember how someone said it was bad luck to talk about the house and that family. I let it go and we kept the piano since David knew how to play already and I wanted to learn too. Why, did you find something?” 

Could the ghost possibly mean the piano? But it never been moved out of the house and he just got here. No, it had to be something else. 

“No, I was just wondering. Mrs.Fairgrow... did you ever note something weird about the house?” He couldn’t straight out ask if she had ever been bothered by ghosts. 

“Weird as in what exactly? And how many times do I have to tell you Joseph? Just call me Gloria.” He could hear the teasing in her voice but he just didn’t want to get attached to them. Joseph had plans after all and he couldn’t stay stuck in Beaumont, Texas for any reason. He had to find his brothers before the Collapse happened. 

“Well, as in being colder than it should be or... creaking and groaning from the house?” He really had no idea how to ask her if a teenage girl visited them in their dreams to torture them. 

“Well, it’s a house from the sixties... despite that the agent said the previous owner paid for the house to be left in good maintenance until someone bought it. And in the last years I could say everything went well. Is there any problem with your room Joseph? You could stay in the one of the guest room if you want to.” He heard the worry in her voice but he quickly shot it down. 

“No, no... Gloria. Thank you but it’s not necessary. It’s just... I’m still trying to adapt to me staying here so whatever noise I hear at night... startles me. Excuse me.” 

“Oh no, no problem Joseph. I understand. You’re just curious. Don’t worry and whenever you’re in doubt just ask.” She smiled warmly at him. He nodded, gave a little smile, left the kitchen and retired to his room. 

He was still wary around the top of the staircase, lighting up the hall in order to see that there was no hound hiding in the shadows, ready to munch on him. She really liked to do that and even if he expected it, it still scared him when it eventually attacked or when the dog would not attack at all, making him wary of his surroundings. Until his master would just appear in the corner of his eye and attack him. 

He quickly went to his room. 

Just as he passed the door, he examined the room. He looked at his desk, already full of books he will need tomorrow once classes started, and his new pencil case and notebooks. He looked at his made bed right beside the light-yellow painted wall. His old backpack was still sitting as he left it on the wood floor, right beside the mostly empty bookcase that was already there when he came. His built-in closet and window, still closed. Just to be sure he sniffed at the air and it just smelled like him. He gave out a sigh and dropped on the bed, trying to prepare himself mentally for the night but soon enough his mind went to all the clues he got. 

  1. The house had been abandoned but taken care of for a couple of years by the previous owner, whoever they are. They definitely cared about the house but couldn’t stand to live in it, for some reason. Either because of the ghost or something bad happened.
  2. Everyone avoided to talk about the house’s history. The house was infamous for some reason. Maybe the same reason as why the previous owners left?
  3. He figured something about the ghost. She studied at the same school he will start studying. How? She wore the same clothes as some female students he saw around the school he was going to study at. She definitely studied there, once at least. Maybe he could find some older year albums and figure out the identity of his ghost.
  4. Every night she demanded him to give her something that was most likely once hers. He tried to search his room in every nook and cranny but he couldn’t find anything that didn’t belong to him or that was out of place. The piano couldn’t be it either. Whatever it was maybe it will help her move on and leave him alone in peace.
  5. She definitely had something against him, for some reason. She left alone the Fairgrows while with him she made it her only goal to play around with him. But why? Because he could see her? No, somehow, he doubted it. Maybe because he was the only one who could help her? But why antagonize him then?



Joseph tried to convince himself to try once more to talk with her. It was going to be hard but if he couldn’t talk with her, he really had no idea how to help her. 

After a couple of hours he bid goodnight to both Gloria and David after they had dinner, he showered and just prayed to the Lord the girl could somehow be appeased, in order to be in peace until his 18th birthday. 

He went to sleep and not long after he wake up once more in cold sweet. 

He was in the dream and he didn’t need more confirmation when he saw a black hound standing right in the center of his bedroom. Though there was something wrong with it. 

It looked... normal for once. No wounds, no crazed look in it’s eyes, no foam at it’s mouth and he didn’t bare his fangs at Joseph when he raised himself from the bed and stood watching it warily. 

It yawned as if it just woke up from a nap and headed for the door, still closed as Joseph left it before going to sleep, and it raised himself up on it’s hind legs trying to turn the knob with it’s paws. He dropped to the floor and barked at Joseph when it saw he was still seated on his bed. Picking up a hair tie he pulled his hair into a manbun and quickly, when it began to growl at him, he went to the door and opened it. The dog got out quickly out of the room and stood outside waiting for something. When it barked and approached him, too quickly for Joseph to get back, it bit his pants and began to thug at him. 

It was clear the dog wanted to bring him somewhere. And he had the feeling the dog won’t hesitate to turn aggressive if Joseph didn’t comply. 

So, he began to follow, in the darkness of the hallway. 

When Joseph approached the stairway, he realized something. The lights were on and he could hear lots of people talking and clinking glasses, over the sound of what he could identify as classical music. But what he most clearly could hear were the notes of a piano. 

He looked down the staircase and he could see people in fancy clothes but when he looked at their faces... they were all smudged. Joseph couldn’t recognize any of their features and compared to what he had seen until now it was much more unsettling than it should have been. With the unnatural moving and how some of them just lacked movement as if they were statues it made it more unsettling. And he soon realized whenever someone was talking it sounded as if they were talking through a broken radio. 

What was his ghost trying to say with this...? 

The dog pushed past him and ran down the stairs, no longer caring if Joseph followed it or not. In the light he could now realize it was a dark brown Doberman. Once it reached the bottom of the stairs it barked happily and headed towards the living room. 

Joseph blinked, weirded out. This situation really caught him off guard. People appeared as if they couldn’t see him and ignored the dog altogether. 

He didn’t know what to do but when the perfume of the woman came over him and wrapped him like a blanket, making him feel safe, he snapped out of his trace and realized the lights on the hall were on and someone was nudging him. 

He turned and before him was the weeping woman from before. Only she was smiling and... she was gorgeous. 

Her blond hair, looking like liquid sunshine, was in a wedge haircut, like the one he would see in some old photographs Gloria had displayed in the living room, from when she was younger. Her emerald eyes, like the green grass of valleys, were twinkling in the light of the hallway and the makeup only accentuated them. The big bubbly smile, her ruby red lips and her blushing cheeks only made clearer how happy she was. 

She was wearing a bold red dress that may have been modest but was hugging her body, showing her hourglass figure and he could clearly point out she had to be in her late twenties. Also, she was tall. As tall as Joseph in fact, he looked down and realized she was wearing some expensive high heeled red shows. 

Red really complimented her. Joseph felt his cheeks go hot. 

She suddenly grabbed him by his chin and kissed his cheek which she then began to rub with her thumb trying to rub off most likely her lipstick. 

“Oh mon ange, I know you’re not fond of crowds but you have to go down there and greet everyone. All of them came to congratulate you. Just tonight, ok? And I promise we’ll go and have a picnic this weekend. Just you, me and Alex. Pinky promise?” 

“Excuse me, who?” It was then Joseph realized he could actually talk for once. 

The woman looked at him for a while, as if she was listening to him talk and shaking her hand as if she was... actually having a pinky promise with someone. And with how she bowed down a little it had to be someone smaller in stature than him. Then she beamed at him and went down the stairs towards the person that had just entered through the door and called her name. 

“Aurora! So good to see you!” 

“Oh Nicole! You arrived! I’m so glad to see you.” 

Joseph just had the idea in that moment... an idea he actually wanted to ignore... that maybe he was now in an actual memory. A memory of his ghost. 

He began to go down the stairs slowly, the music of the piano, only by the sound beckoning him once more, and even though the... people he passed by would pat his shoulder or his head and even though he couldn’t understand the garble of words that went his way he realized they must have been giving him, better said his ghost, congratulations for something. He just ignored them and followed the sound of the piano. 

It was a cheery melody. It kind of reminded him of a children’s song. 

He finally reached the source of the sound. 

She was at the piano, playing the notes. Or at least a younger version of her. He could recognize that onyx hair anywhere after dreaming so long with it. Besides, she, the boy that stayed besides her, watching her play and the dog were the only normal looking ones in the crowd. 

And even if was supposed to be the star of the party no one else paid attention to her. There were no other kids around. Only those two. 

She was wearing a blue overalls dress with a puffy skirt that he could see annoyed her by how she was trying to tame it but it stubbornly didn’t stay as she wanted, a white and blue pattern shirt with sleeves that reached her wrists, with white stockings and dress shoes. Her hair was done in a braid, with a white ribbon and it reached her butt. She looked like she was a little child with her small body and the boy next to her looked a bit smaller than her, wearing matching overalls in color and material and a patterned shirt with sleeves and black shoes. 

The dog was right beside them with it’s fore legs on the piano seat, listening and looking curiously at the piano. Then quickly lost interest and then climbed her back and began to whine for attention. The boy would just put his hands on the piano and start to play too, less smoothly while the girl would raise her right hand and scratch the ears of the dog while with her left she continued to play notes. A bit awkward but she managed somehow. 

The melody was no longer that smooth but it was still nice to watch how the two acted. 

“Hey Hope... When do you think they will leave? I’m tired.” The light high voice surprised him since he never heard it before. He realized it must have been coming from the younger boy talking to her. 

So, her name was Hope... Ironic. 

Even if lighter than before he could still recognize the voice that haunted him whenever he was asleep. It reminded him mostly of when she was trying to act sweet around him to lull him into a state of peace before she would find a new way to torture him with. It still gave him a shiver. 

“I know Alex, you told me. I don’t like it either. They will be gone in a while or when father gets fed up and will told them all to leave. Hopefully the former.” Joseph heard the slight tone of fear in her voice but he couldn’t comprehend the fact his tormentor was actually scared of someone else. 

“Are you that tired? Why don’t you go to sleep?” 

“I don’t wanna. These people will keep me awake and you promised me we will sleep together. Did you forget already, Hope? Of the... boogeyman under my bed?” The last part was whispered and Joseph wasn’t facing him but he noted the boy’s shaking and that he was about to cry. She turned to face her brother, making the dog leave her shoulder. 

He already knew it was her, but the profile shot of her face made it more believable. Also, how alike the boy looked to her just proved him that he must be her younger brother... thus making the child toys appearing here in there, during his dreams, more understandable as to why she clung to them. 

The woman and the boy were not ghosts. They were just memories. Otherwise, the woman would have not acted towards him as if he was a child. If the girl was the child of the previous owners of the house... 

… That meant that for 7 years she had been all alone, stuck in an abandoned house, most likely not understanding she died after such a brutal death, after being forced to see how her family ignored her and left her behind. 

He pitied her once more. 

“Hey, don’t cry now. I’ll always protect you Alex. Just -” Maybe feeling his emotions (she did mention how she despised the most his pity), the entire world stopped and her face morphed into one of indifference. She was gazing at him, with that dead look in her eyes. The party members were now stuck as if they all had been turned into mannequins with ruined clothes, turning their heads slowly towards him. The warm lights turned into cold ones, the temperature of the room dropped several degrees and he felt as someone dropped a bucket full of icy water on him, in the middle of January. Joseph began to shiver and hug himself for warmth. 

He took his glance away from her for a second but returned his gaze at the piano when he heard the fallboard fall loudly over the piano keys. She was gone and so the boy was. 

Only the dog was standing in position, growling at him, looking menacing and ready to jump at him once more. Then his head tilted to Joseph’s right just a bit, calming down quickly. 

“I wasn’t honestly expecting you to follow my dog so easily. Are you that stupid or I still didn’t terrorize you enough?” He turned quickly, expecting the kitchen knife and trying to stop her but it never came. She just pushed him and suddenly he stumbled and fell in his bed with her standing just a couple of feet away from him. 

She was once again an angelic looking sixteen-year-old, with her rumpled school uniform and the kitchen knife in her hand. 

He crawled back as far away from her until he hit the corner between the bedframe and wall and she just sighed while averting her gaze. 

“Man, I did bully you, huh?” 

“What!?” 

Not expecting that question, he let her know his disbelief and with a roll of her eyes just went and sat on his chair. His door creaked open and the dog entered, going over to it’s master and began to shower her face in wet doggy kisses. 

He heard laughing. He actually heard her laugh in genuine happiness over the ministration of her dog. It was the first time she didn’t laugh mockingly at him or at his suffering coming from her abuse. 

It was a lovely sound. 

“Hey stop now! I just let you in because you wanted attention! Stop!” But yet she still continued to laugh. The dog just got off her and would raise itself on it’s hind legs and try to play with her hand and barking happily. 

She stopped laughing and with a precious smile on her face that made him blush she started to pet it. 

What... was honestly wrong with the both of them? 

Once the dog started to quiet down and laid on it’s tummy, with it’s head towards it’s master and watching her, while she turned back to him with a look of indifference. He didn’t know how to interpret this whole situation but he remained quiet, watching her. 

But Joseph knew something must have changed. 

“You want so badly to talk? Then let’s talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noted I was getting wordy and I said to cut here. Besides I still kinda need to realize how the hell I'm going to make their dialogue as awkward as possible.  
> Also: I was doin the math wit a calculator of everyones ages and I was like: My babies are actually so fucking old.

**Author's Note:**

> My first multi-chaptered story! And doing it with creepy old Joseph starting in his teenage years! Wooo! This is gonna be a doozy. But I'm going to have fun.


End file.
